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O’Keefe Ranch and Pistachio, the little Canadian mare

Over the years, Gilbert has seen many horses with behavior issues and movement difficulties that cannot be fixed by training alone. He is very sensitive to energies in the horses he gets to know, and can often sense their pain. From his many years of experience, he has learned to help many of these horses through manipulation, stretching and massage. Some people say he has “healing hands”.

Gilbert and Soleil

Gilbert and I went to the Canadian Horse Heritage & Preservation Society’s summer event at the historic O’Keefe Ranch in Vernon. To join in the fun, we brought our big Canadian mare, “Gigi” along with “Soleil”, a friend’s young Canadian gelding that Gilbert had recently started under saddle. Gilbert rode Soleil in a number of classes, and the little gelding did very well considering his inexperience. The weather was very hot, but we had fun with the horses, and camping and visiting with many of our old friends from CHHAPS.

The costume parade at O'Keefe

While there, Gilbert was approached by another friend from CHHAPS whose little Canadian mare had some problems with her movement. Gilbert could see that she had an alignment problem in her spine, and worked on her for a little while. A few weeks later he received the following email from the little mare’s owner:

Gilbert,

I am speechless about Pistachio! I have been concerned about the vertabrae on her back since we got her as a two year old. It was only earlier this year that we were able to determine it was from an old injury of some kind and not her conformation or the way she was born. I tell you no lie, I have had this little mare looked at and treated by three different vets, chiropractors, acupuncturists and massage therapists. The last vet told me to send her to the States for an MRI, I was devastated. You, have performed a miracle on our pony that I cannot even begin to express my gratitude. We only rode her today for the first time since O”Keefe as we all took a week off of riding, then I took my girls away to the lake for a week. Her back is straight and no longer has that hump on it. Her movement is fluid, flowy and sound. There is no more stiff looking movement, choppy, short striding, or dropping her hind end. She moves into the canter on the correct lead and without any effort. I am awed by all of it!

From the bottom of my heart, and Charlotte and Pistachio’s too, thank you so very much! Here’s a picture of her and the girls to put on your “cured” trophy wall.